1544. ASCHAM, Toxophilus [ARBER], 97. Men play with laws.
1566. R. Edwards, Damon and Pythias [Nares]. Yet have I play'd with his beard, in knitting this knot I promist friendship, but . . . I meant it not.
1596. Shakspeare, Hamlet, iii. 2. Though you can fret me you cannot play upon me.
1598. Shakspeare, 1 Hen. IV., v. 4. Art thou alive? Or is it fantasy that plays upon our eyesight? I prithee, speak. Ibid., ii. 4. They call drinking deep, dyeing scarlet; and when you breathe in your watering, they cry 'hem!' and bid you PLAY IT OFF.
1600. Jonson, Cynthia's Revels, iv. 1. If she hath played loose with me, I'll cut her throat.
1609. Jonson, Case is Altered, iv. 5. Is't not enough That you have played upon me all this while, But still to mock me, still to jest at me.
1610. Beaumont and Fletcher, Maid's Tragedy, iv. 1. Do not play with mine anger.
1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, 1. xlii. By God! whoever of our party shall offer to play the duck . . . I give myself to the devil if I do not make a monk of him.
1705. Vanbrugh, Confederacy, iii. Flip. Brass, the game is in our hands if we can but play the cards.
1749. Smollett, Gil Blas [Routledge] (1866), 14. Domingo, after playing a good knife and fork, and getting gloriously muddled, took himself onto the stable. Ibid., 143. Ortiz . . . was determined to play up to my mistress. Ibid., 108. The little fellow . . . was but just coming into play. Ibid. (1812), iii. 83. 'What dost thou think of my lodging and œconomy?' 'Thou must have certainly played thy CARDS well at Madrid, to be so well furnished.
1778. Sheridan, Rivals, ii. 1. You rely upon the mildness of my temper . . . you play upon the meekness of my disposition. Ibid., ii. 2. You play false with us, madam—I saw you give the baronet a letter.
1842. Macaulay, Horatius, xxix. Hew down the bridge, Sir Consul, With all the speed ye may; I with two more to help me, Will hold the foe in play.
1868-9. Browning, Ring and Book, VI. Why PLAY . . . INTO THE DEVIL'S hands Dy dealing so ambiguously.
186[?]. Bret Harte, Further L. from Truthful James. Is our investigation a failure, or is the Caucasian played OUT?
1882. Fortnightly Review, 88. After all there is some refreshing sense of the primæval about this played-out country.
1888. Henley and Stevenson, Deacon Brodie, i. You play false, you hound!
1888. Milliken, 'Arry Ballads . . . Bin playing some dark little game?
1892. Zangwill in Idler, Feb., 62. I think it's playing it too low upon a chap. It's taking a mean advantage of my position.
1895. Pocock, Rules of the Game, ii. You can ride on the waggon if you are too played out for a saddle horse.
1898. Newbolt, Admirals All, 21. The word that, year by year, While . . . School is set . . . her sons must hear, And none . . . forget. This, they all, with joyful mind, Bear through life like a torch in flame, And falling, fling to the hosts behind, Play up, play up, and PLAY THE GAME!
1899. Daily Mail, 16 Mar., 7, 1. Playing to the gas is used in the general sense in reference to small audiences, but strictly it means that an audience was only large enough to render receipts sufficient to pay the bill for the evening's lighting.
Pleasure, subs. (venery).—The
sexual spasm: Fr. le plaisir.
Hence, the art of pleasure
= the practise of love; the
DEED OF PLEASURE = the act of
kind; PLEASURE-BOAT (-GARDEN,
-ground, or -place) = the
female pudendum: also the
PALACE OF PLEASURE: see MONOSYLLABLE;
PLEASURE-GARDEN
PADLOCK = the menstrual cloth;
PLEASURE-LADY (or LADY OF
PLEASURE) = a harlot: Fr. fille
de joie; a votary of pleasure
= a whoremonger (Bailey, 1748);
TO PLEASURE (or PLEASE) A
